Hey, Carpool Crew. Welcome back to Carpooling with Heroes of the Bible. We're in episode four of our Rahab series. So far, we've met Rahab. We have watched her hide the spies. We have learned about the scarlet cord. In this episode, the walls come down. Let me ask you something. Have you ever felt like everything around you was falling apart? Like things at home were rough, or things at school felt impossible, or your friend group just couldn't stop arguing, or somebody you love got really sick. That's happened in my life, and it's really difficult. Sometimes life feels like the walls are caving in. What I love about today's part of Rahab's story is that she's going to show us that God's promises stand firm even when everything else falls down. So buckle up. This is a good one. Let's pick up the story in Joshua six. Israel is camped outside Jericho. They're not allowed inside. The walls are still standing. The people of Jericho are scared, but their walls are huge, and they are double thick, and they think nobody can break through. Then God gives Joshua a battle plan, and it's one of the strangest battle plans that you probably have ever heard. God says, march around the city one time every day for six days. Then on the seventh day, march around it seven times. Blow the trumpets, shout, and the walls will fall. That is the whole plan. No catapults, no battering rams, no swords drawn at the gate. Just walking around, blowing horns, and shouting. Now, if you're an Israelite soldier, you have got to be looking at Joshua thinking, are you sure about this? March around a city for a week and shout? That's the battle plan? And here's the thing. They obeyed. Carpool Crew, this is something we have to talk about. The number seven shows up everywhere in the Bible. Seven days of creation, seven days of marching, seven trips around Jericho on the seventh day, seven trumpet blasts. In Hebrew culture, the number seven means completeness. It means total. It's full. So when God uses seven on top of seven on top of seven in this story, he is making a point. The victory is not partial. It's not half God and half Israel. It's not a team effort. The win is fully, completely, totally God's. And there's something else going on here that you might miss if you only read the storybook version. In the ancient Canaanite world, city walls were not just walls. People sometimes treated them like gods. The walls were a symbol of human strength. They represented safety, power, identity. Some Canaanite cities even had little shrines built into their walls and would offer prayers to the wall itself. So when God knocked down Jericho's walls flat with nothing but a shout, he was not just winning a battle. He was making a statement. The walls are not God. The fortress is not God. Human strength is not God. The Lord is God. That's so wild. So picture this. Seven days, Israel walking, the people of Jericho watching from the top of the wall, probably making fun of them. Day seven hits, Israel marches one time around, two, three, four, five, six, seven. The trumpets blast, the people shout, and the walls collapse. Archaeologists have actually found this in the dirt. At the place called Tell es-Sultan, which is the ruins of ancient Jericho, they found a destruction layer where the mud brick walls had collapsed outward in a pile, exactly the way Joshua six describes. They also found a layer of burned grain, which lines up with the Bible saying the city was burned, but the food supply was not eaten or taken. Soldiers usually stole all the grain. Israel didn't. The story holds together. But here's the part I love the most. While Jericho is collapsing, while the city is burning, while the smoke is rising, Joshua sends two men into the wreckage to find one specific person, Rahab. Joshua chapter six, verse 22 says, "Joshua said to the two men who had scouted the land, go to Rahab's house and bring out the woman and all who are with her, just as you swore to her." Did you catch that? Just as you swore to her. The promise was kept. Every single word. Rahab and her father and her mother and her brothers and her sisters and everyone who belonged to them, all rescued, pulled out of the city that was crumbling around them, brought to safety. And the Bible says that they were taken to a place outside the camp of Israel. That part is important. They weren't immediately mixed in with all of Israel. They were kept just outside, transitioning, getting ready, learning. It was a step. It was not the final destination, but it was the beginning of a brand-new life for them. Carpool Crew, if you're listening to this episode and your life feels a little shaky, I want you to hear me. God's promises do not collapse just because life is shaky. When everything else falls down, God keeps his promises. His promises still stand. Maybe your family's going through something. Maybe school is hard. Maybe a friendship just blew up. Maybe you're scared about something coming up. The walls in your world might feel like they're wobbly, but the God who kept his word to Rahab keeps his word to you too. He will not forget you. He will not lose track of you. He sees the scarlet cord in the window of your heart. And when the dust settles, and trust me, it will, you will see what Rahab saw, that God was faithful the entire time. I'd love for you and your family to discuss this a little bit. Here's a couple of questions. What is one wall in your life that feels shaky right now? And what is one promise of God you can hold on to in this moment? Thanks for riding along on Carpooling with Heroes of the Bible. In our last episode, episode five, we wrap the series. And what we're going to see might be the most surprising part of the entire story. Spoiler alert, Rahab does not just survive Jericho. She becomes part of the family line that leads to Jesus. You don't want to miss it. I'll see you next time, Carpool Crew. Have a good one.
